Nigerian teenager Oluwaseun Ogunsakin has secured his first Grand Slam main-draw victory after fighting back to defeat Chinese Taipei’s Kuan-Shou Chen at the US Open Junior Championships.
The 17-year-old Aurum Tennis Academy player overcame the 15th seed 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 to reach the second round in New York.
Ogunsakin lost the opening set but recovered by raising his intensity and consistency before forcing the contest into a deciding set. He then held his nerve to close out the match 7-5.
The victory marks the first time Ogunsakin has won a match in the main draw of a Grand Slam junior tournament.
From qualifying to the Grand Slam stage
Ogunsakin’s run began in qualifying, where he defeated Poland’s Tymon Litwic before producing an upset against Canada’s Felix Roussel, the top seed, to reach the 64-player main draw.
His progress in New York follows an important breakthrough at Wimbledon earlier this year. He became the first Nigerian in decades to compete at the tournament and the first Nigerian in more than a decade to feature in a Grand Slam main draw.
The US Open victory adds another step to a rapid rise that has placed Ogunsakin among the country’s most closely watched young tennis players.
His next challenge will come in the second round, where he will attempt to extend a run that has already given Nigerian tennis one of its notable moments at this year’s tournament.
For a country with a long but inconsistent history in international tennis, Ogunsakin’s progress offers a rare opportunity to build attention around a player emerging through the junior ranks rather than after reaching the senior circuit.
His immediate objective remains simple: win another match in New York. The significance of the first one, however, is already clear.
